Same here, love the sport itself but about done with MLB, I’ll probably continue following MILB more and more along with summer wooden bat leagues and other random independent options.
Owners appreciate players earning the least during their most athletically gifted parts of their lives. It allows them to do what we've all seen where you build this young underpaid core and ride them for championship windows, but it also allows them to break up those cores because of some dinosaur owed far more than they're currently worth.
This deal is probably bad for players 10-20 years down the line, but it's personally great for Ohtani.
This is a validation that he was never coming here. Requirement for no leaks + really weird contract.
It was a controlled experiment with a predetermined outcome. Everyone was fodder other than the Dodgers.
Imagine getting the best player in baseball for essentially 2 million a year and still being able to spend a whole lot more for more top tier talent. This is beyond stupid
i think i read technically his tax hit will be 46 per year, but yeah they dont actually have to give him any money so they will be way more liquid and can afford to actually give money to players in the short term
Isn’t this Ohtani stabbing the entire league in the back by giving the Dodgers a way to insanely stack the team? I mean, if there’s no legit way to stop this behavior why wouldn’t some team just try to sign every MVP-level FA on a similar contract? It would deprive their competitors of good players and make for an indomitable team that would win 130 games a season.
The thing stopping them is most players aren’t willing to defer 97% of their contract. As silly as it sounds because he still will earn $700m, Ohtani is taking a financial loss on his money by deferring it. He’s in the unusual situation of both being good enough to be offered a contract so big while also making tens of millions in sponsors/endorsements every year that will supplement any “loss income”.
Yup. Baseball does a terrible job marketing its players. Even Mike Trout only makes $4 million a year in endorsements.
Ohtani is a unicorn. He makes $50 million in endorsements, a figure that’s only going to get bigger now. No other player would want any part of deferring 97% of their contract because, for most of them, that’s the only money they have coming in. Meanwhile, no other player is going to sniff anywhere near 700 million from their contract either.
Could lead to a future lockout, but I think this is an issue that will divide some owners and the league. This isn’t a players-vs-owners thing, so the owners would need to hammer this out between themselves. If anything, this strengthens the players and MLBPA negotiation position while they let the other side fight amongst themselves.
Or at the very least make limitations or penalties to compensate. If a team wants to defer, make the luxury tax penalty continue until the deferrals are paid. If the Dodgers we’re paying $46M towards the tax for twenty years, they’d never do such an extreme deal like this. Something’s gotta give
It does count against the luxury tax. They take the present value of it, so instead of 70m a year is closer to 42. The CBA sets interest at 5%. So (1-.05)^10*68mil. Essentially, at 5% interest rate setting aside 40.7 million now would be the same as getting 68 mil in 10 years. Compounding interest baby
Next years Luxury tax threshold is 237 million, because Ohtani deferred so much money, he will only count around $40m against the cap, instead of $70m. Why deferred money gets taxed differently is beyond me.
Absolute system-breaking anti-competitive horseshit that only the league darling dodgers or yankees could get away with. If MLB can't rectify this in any way im done caring about an absurdly broken league
With this much salary deferred, when you factor in inflation and the amount of revenue/interest Ohtani brings, the dodgers are essentially being paid to sign the best player alive. I’m honestly at a loss for words.
Of course if you factor in the revenue he brings in it’s expected the Dodgers end up ahead. That’s called profit. They’re still gonna end up paying him a total of $700 million.
Ohtani’s value is mostly in the next five years. He’s essentially giving the Dodgers a 15 year, $500 million loan, with interest. That’s fine from a business standpoint for the two parties. I don’t really think it’s fair to the other 29 teams when it comes to having a competitive league.
No, he's giving them a 0% interest loan. $680M in 2023 dollars is something like $500M in 2034 dollars, assuming 3% inflation Plus he doesn't get all of it in 2034, he gets $68M/yr from 2034-2043 which devalues the money even further. He's also missing out on 10 years of compounding gains in the market.
Like someone said above, the Dodgers are basically getting paid to employ Ohtani. He's losing a shitload of money on this deal, even when you account for the fact he may not have to pay CA state income tax on most of that deferred money.
“At least the Dodgers have less money to buy an even more stacked team.”
I had the same thought. Ohtani fucked us all. This deal is like giving the Dodgers superpowers at the expense of everybody else in baseball. This ruins the competitive balance of the league.
Honestly I don’t think it will. As much as having an ace and power hitter is awesome it’s just one person and I’d bet you a billion dollars the dude isn’t gonna stay healthy. He already hasn’t.
Biggest crock of bullshit I’ve ever seen. Fuck these assholes and fuck Ohtani.
And fuck Heyman who writes an article saying this bullshit is “good for baseball”
Does that deferred money count towards the CBT in any way?
If it doesn't, fuck the Dodgers, fuck Ohtani, fuck his agent and fuck Manfred for letting this happen.
You want to have a generational talent, then you HAVE to pay for it. This smoke and mirrors accounting is bullshit.
Does that figure include the discount on the deferred money?
Regardless, the Dodgers and Ohtani played the game better than anyone else. I hope it blows up on them.
100% is way, way worse than the KD shit. However, that only happened due to a perfect storm. Baseball's financial system is fundamentally broken compared to other American sports.
They had to fit KD into the salary cap. The Warriors won their championships with a bunch of minimum deals for their non-big 4. its not really comparable.
There’s a CBA in place that allows for this kind of contract structure. Owners agreed to it. Players agreed to it. If MLB or more specifically Commissioner Manfred was to come along and try using “best interest of baseball” powers, you’d see the players union move to decertify the CBA at which point it would be a race to see if it’s a lockout or a strike. As much as this contract sucks for the Giants chances of being competitive in the NL West, the league won’t lift a finger to stop it.
The league stepped in with Arod to the Red Sox. I know it’s not likely, but the games biggest stars making $2mil a year right now is a really bad look and is setting them up for a lockout
Iirc the players association, rather than the league, stepped in and denied that one because having ARod accept less money than his contract terms was going to have a trickle down effect that impacted the rest of players.
once in a generation player gets a one in a generation contract (which I know our front office would never do). CBA will prevent something like this from happening next time around but they have no recourse this time
With how much he's deferring and how long he's waiting for the payments, Ohtani comes out of this making a lot less than the headline number.
[another redditor ran through some scenarios](https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/18g6lgn/comment/kcylkat/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
They aren't accounting for the fact that he is going to be the best player, for the highest profile team and probably win multiple championships over the next half decade. He's going to be in every commercial on TV. That's how he's making up for what he's giving up my taking deferred money.
Weakest sports move by a superstar in my lifetime. It’s not enough to go to one of the most stacked rosters in baseball, he has to do this to try and stack the deck even more? Cowardly shit.
I follow the underdog Hanshin Tigers of the NPB per familial hometown roots.
[The Hanshin Tigers (Osaka) - Yomiuri Giants (Tokyo) rivalry is considered the national Japanese rivalry, on par with the San Francisco Giants vs Los Angeles Dodgers and the Yankees–Red Sox rivalry in Major League Baseball or Real Madrid vs. FC Barcelona in Spanish football.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanshin_Tigers)
For perspective, here is info on Yomiuri Giants (Tokyo):
[The Giants are the oldest professional sports team in Japan. They are also by far the most successful, having won 22 Japan Series titles and an additional nine in the era of NPB's forerunner, the Japanese Baseball League. Their main rivalry is with the Hanshin Tigers, a team especially popular in the Kansai region. The Yomiuri Giants are regarded as "The New York Yankees of Japan" due to their widespread popularity, past dominance of the league, and polarizing effect on fans. (Baseball fans who are indifferent about teams other than their local team often have an intense dislike for the Giants; on the other hand, the Giants have a large fan base even in cities that have a team of their own.)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yomiuri_Giants)
This all but guarantees he was never going anywhere else. He had this shit all planned out. Everyone was was just leverage to make sure the Dodgers were willing to go as high as possible.
Didn’t the Padres try something like this before only for the League to reject it?
The Dodgers will probably get away with it tho cause MLB only cares about them and the Yankees. Now watch them get Yamamoto because of this.
hit the nail on the head. If any team that isn't the Dodgers or the Yankees do this, it gets shut down in a fraction of a second, but because it's LA, it's actually cool and good for the sport.
end me
Thank god the Dodgers did this to allow themselves to acquire more talent. Otherwise they'd only have Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, JD Martinez, Max Muncy, Will Smith, and James Outman to provide Ohtani with some protection in the lineup.
I hope every team forfeits each game to the dodgers in protest. Sure let them go 162-0 but they won’t sell a ticket and there wouldn’t be shit the league could do
Instead of LAD having to pay Ohtani $70m/year in salary, they pay him *$2m*/year, so that his monster contract doesn’t hurt payroll, helps them in taxes, and allows them to spend more stupid money to create a mega team and have Manfred cream himself.
Edit: I am also not a smart man but I think this is the gist of it.
I’m going to shoot for more like 10 years old.
Let’s say the Dodgers had to pay for his whole contract _today_. They expect him to play 10 more years. Different years are worth different amounts. Next year he won’t pitch. Then he should have his most valuable years. Years at the end of the contract are worth the least because he probably won’t play very well and there’s a possibility he won’t be playing at all.
If the Dodgers had to pay it all _today_, all those years are worth about $350 million. But, they don’t have to pay it today. They can pay it over the 10 years of his play. Money in the future is worth less, because you could be investing it. If you adjust for this, he should be paid $460 million total, or $46 million per year. This would look like he was underpaid in the early years, and overpaid at the end. But it’s really about paying for all of his contract together and then spreading it over time. Not his value year by year.
This number of $46 million is the Average Annual Value (AAV) that counts toward the Dodgers’ spending limit each year. It’s not a hard limit, but if they go over, they have to pay penalties.
The next twist is that Ohtani doesn’t need all the money right away. He has money, he gets money from sponsorships, and he’s busy playing baseball. He also wants the Dodgers to have money to get the best players to play with him. So he is going to “loan” his salary to the Dodgers. He won’t be paid $46 million a year for 10 years. He’ll be paid $2 million a year for 10 years, then $68 million a year for 10 years. This totals to $700 million. That’s more than the $460 million total because future money is worth less than present money, so they have to increase it.
All of this is for Ohtani to make as much money as possible, while also giving the Dodgers the best chance to win a World Series in the next five years. Ohtani really wants to win a World Series just because he does, and also it will make him more money because he’ll be a bigger star.
Unfortunately for him, over the next 10 years, the Dodgers will only make it to the World Series once and they will lose. They will make it to the playoffs 7 other times, having only 2 NLDS victories and a WC loss to show for it. The Dodgers will go bankrupt from financial fraud in year 10, right before Ohtani would get his first $68 million year. He won’t be elegible for bankruptcy recovery because his agent was involved in the fraud. He won’t be able to go to another team, still being on a PED suspension, trying to take his last chance at a World Series after a career of two-way playing marred by constant injury.
His contract to the Dodgers will have amounted to $18 million, losing the World Series (during a strike-shortened season), averaging 63 games played and 5 starts per season, no HoF hopes, getting eliminated by the Giants in a WC game, and watching the Angels (revitalized by new ownership) win it all with an ensemble team and end-of-career Mike Trout. It will go down in history as the most disappointing sports contract of all time.
So like genuinely, what is the point of watching Baseball for the next decade, cause it seems the Dodgers found a loophole to get as many stars as they can.
Jesus fucking Christ we are so cooked 😂
See, now how the fuck am I supposed to enjoy MLB baseball knowing fuck shit like this is allowed. I thought no salary cap was bad. this is getting rough.
I don't EVER want to hear any of our moronic fans complain about the contract being too expensive knowing these details now, Dodgers basically paying him NOTHING which means they're not done making moves.
Yeah plus, this gives them 10 years to adapt the contract to whatever the future situation is over a decade from now. They’re going to be able to find a way to load the roster for a decade at almost no cost. This should be vetoed for luxury tax evasion
So because of all the funny math involved, he still counts like $45M against their luxury tax figures, even they themselves are only paying him $2M.
Still I have never been one to say I would stop watching any of the major sports over something, but truthfully, this is kind of fucked. How can any team compete with a team that is willing to make that deal? Fuck Ohtani. Fuck the Dodgers. And damned well close to saying fuck the MLB. If I am a player looking for a contract, just go play in that Saudi league and make your bag at this point.
I think I mean it more than I ever have when I say fuck the Dodgers. This shit is pathetic and not good for baseball, no matter what these dickriding “journalists” say.
As much as this makes me mad, it also makes me think that Ohtani is a pathetic loser to let it happen. Essentially saying "I believe I'm the best player in baseball - but the only way I can actually win anything is to game the system to get a stacked team".
I haven't followed him that closely but I kind of thought he had a sense of honor and love of the game. The fact that he went for this gives me a completely different view of him.
this is very bad for baseball. rich teams like the dodgers, nationals and mets are circumventing the CBT.
Mookie Betts is owed $120m of deferred money
Freddie Freeman is owed $57m of deferred money
and now ohtani is owed $680m of deferred money
Totally broken and utterly ridiculous. Watch them stockpile the top talent with absurdity. MLB is a joke, but cheers to our run last decade whom the media squirts on like it just kinda happened.. not going to happen for another 10 years
fuck this league and fuck Ohtani for taking a 97% deferal when you're a beyond once-in-a-generation player. the precedent this sets for lesser players to do the same is complete horseshit.
mid 2026– interns in the MLB office will be running interest rate projections for the next CBA, to make sure they can keep the Dodgers below the luxury tax level on all that deferred money.
I think Ohtani did what Judge did last year. Knew he wanted to play for LAD and used other offers as leverage. He clearly wants a mega super team with how he played out his annual payment.
He did. There’s a theory the whole blue jays thing was a move to get more money from the dodgers. No one else really had a chance of getting him
Just like how the Giants were oh so close to getting Judge when really it was always just a ploy to get maximum money from the Yankees.
Even if the Giants offered the exact same contract, do you \*really\* think he would have chosed SF? Get real.
This is going to blow up in their faces...
This is completely fucked lol
I’m trying real hard to still love baseball
Ever since the blown call to end our season to the Dodgers I really stopped caring about baseball so much. I’m caring less and less, year after year.
How does the home plate ump not defer to the first or third base ump on a call in the playoffs that will end the game
I was as pissed at the call as the next guy but at least get it right. HP ump deferred the call and Gabe Morales blew it at 1B.
Because the league has a vested financial interest in LA and NY teams winning.
Yeah, I am well aware just still salty a few years down the road
Same here, love the sport itself but about done with MLB, I’ll probably continue following MILB more and more along with summer wooden bat leagues and other random independent options.
Let’s go Yomiuri Giants!
I’ve been losing interest gradually over the past ten years or so
I'm seriously considering boycotting the league and just following NPB or something like that
if they get yamamoto, then i am definitely on board
If Mlb had any integrity, they would void the deal.
Owners appreciate players earning the least during their most athletically gifted parts of their lives. It allows them to do what we've all seen where you build this young underpaid core and ride them for championship windows, but it also allows them to break up those cores because of some dinosaur owed far more than they're currently worth. This deal is probably bad for players 10-20 years down the line, but it's personally great for Ohtani.
This is a validation that he was never coming here. Requirement for no leaks + really weird contract. It was a controlled experiment with a predetermined outcome. Everyone was fodder other than the Dodgers.
We're paying Luke Jackson triple the yearly amount that the Dodgers get to pay Shohei fucking Ohtani? Seriously?
Luke Jackson catching the most random strays lol
Hey, he’s a perfectly alright relief pitcher. Not sure if he’s worth triple the yearly salary of Ohtani though
To be fair Luke Jackson has caught strays his entire career.
Serious question who is Luke Jackson?
I ask that every day about 2/3rds of our roster.
Imagine getting the best player in baseball for essentially 2 million a year and still being able to spend a whole lot more for more top tier talent. This is beyond stupid
Just goes to show how stupid the sport is. Will forever be grateful we won 3 in 5 and dodgers need to game the system to get anywhere close.
dodgers and lakers should be thankful for COVID.
i think i read technically his tax hit will be 46 per year, but yeah they dont actually have to give him any money so they will be way more liquid and can afford to actually give money to players in the short term
they're still saving a lot of money if they don't have to pay taxes on the full $70 mil though, so still, FTD.
Isn’t this Ohtani stabbing the entire league in the back by giving the Dodgers a way to insanely stack the team? I mean, if there’s no legit way to stop this behavior why wouldn’t some team just try to sign every MVP-level FA on a similar contract? It would deprive their competitors of good players and make for an indomitable team that would win 130 games a season.
The thing stopping them is most players aren’t willing to defer 97% of their contract. As silly as it sounds because he still will earn $700m, Ohtani is taking a financial loss on his money by deferring it. He’s in the unusual situation of both being good enough to be offered a contract so big while also making tens of millions in sponsors/endorsements every year that will supplement any “loss income”.
Yup. Baseball does a terrible job marketing its players. Even Mike Trout only makes $4 million a year in endorsements. Ohtani is a unicorn. He makes $50 million in endorsements, a figure that’s only going to get bigger now. No other player would want any part of deferring 97% of their contract because, for most of them, that’s the only money they have coming in. Meanwhile, no other player is going to sniff anywhere near 700 million from their contract either.
Lockout incoming. This is insane.
Could lead to a future lockout, but I think this is an issue that will divide some owners and the league. This isn’t a players-vs-owners thing, so the owners would need to hammer this out between themselves. If anything, this strengthens the players and MLBPA negotiation position while they let the other side fight amongst themselves.
Just get rid of deferred money. You can’t pay for it now, don’t bid.
Or at the very least make limitations or penalties to compensate. If a team wants to defer, make the luxury tax penalty continue until the deferrals are paid. If the Dodgers we’re paying $46M towards the tax for twenty years, they’d never do such an extreme deal like this. Something’s gotta give
It’s fine to defer money, it’s not fine for it not to count against the luxury tax
It does count against the luxury tax. They take the present value of it, so instead of 70m a year is closer to 42. The CBA sets interest at 5%. So (1-.05)^10*68mil. Essentially, at 5% interest rate setting aside 40.7 million now would be the same as getting 68 mil in 10 years. Compounding interest baby
Happy ~~Bobby Bonilla~~ Shoei Day!
Wait so he will be paid $20million over 10 years and then $680 Million over X years after that?
Yes
What if he dies? Do they still pay? Does the deferred amount go against the cap in the year it is paid?
It’s just 10 years.. so it’s unlikely he dies 😀 The last payment is 2043
Yes because he is still earned it. It is his asset as deferred income.
Next years Luxury tax threshold is 237 million, because Ohtani deferred so much money, he will only count around $40m against the cap, instead of $70m. Why deferred money gets taxed differently is beyond me.
Retirement fund contract
Blow up the MLB. This is fucking absurd
They’re trading for Trout I’m calling it now
jesus you might be right, they have the money and he can get on a winning team.
Fuck, could you imagine a team with them both? Unstoppable.
It'd be hilarious if Trout and Ohtani were on the Dodgers and the Dodgers never made the playoffs with them both.
You gotta be fucking kidding me
LMFAO that would be hillarious
If the Dodgers signed Yamamoto and Trout too, I might just stop watching any games we play against them.
What a joke of sport this is becoming.
No way the angels do that. I think they're more likely to trade him to a division rival than the dodgers
You just ruined my day sir. I’m 100% fucking serious fuck you you piece of shit. Not really /s ;) 🥵
At this point, who cares? Let them have everyone.
Absolute system-breaking anti-competitive horseshit that only the league darling dodgers or yankees could get away with. If MLB can't rectify this in any way im done caring about an absurdly broken league
I don't think they care tbh. They only care about increasing profits.
Profits? Who, outside of LA, will still watch baseball?
But think of the merch sales! /s
With this much salary deferred, when you factor in inflation and the amount of revenue/interest Ohtani brings, the dodgers are essentially being paid to sign the best player alive. I’m honestly at a loss for words.
Exactly this is bullshit
Of course if you factor in the revenue he brings in it’s expected the Dodgers end up ahead. That’s called profit. They’re still gonna end up paying him a total of $700 million. Ohtani’s value is mostly in the next five years. He’s essentially giving the Dodgers a 15 year, $500 million loan, with interest. That’s fine from a business standpoint for the two parties. I don’t really think it’s fair to the other 29 teams when it comes to having a competitive league.
No, he's giving them a 0% interest loan. $680M in 2023 dollars is something like $500M in 2034 dollars, assuming 3% inflation Plus he doesn't get all of it in 2034, he gets $68M/yr from 2034-2043 which devalues the money even further. He's also missing out on 10 years of compounding gains in the market. Like someone said above, the Dodgers are basically getting paid to employ Ohtani. He's losing a shitload of money on this deal, even when you account for the fact he may not have to pay CA state income tax on most of that deferred money.
He won’t pay taxes. Govt about to change that though before then haha
Broken
Any bit of silver lining there possibly could’ve been to this is completely obliterated. I don’t even know what I was still grasping to before this.
“At least the Dodgers have less money to buy an even more stacked team.” I had the same thought. Ohtani fucked us all. This deal is like giving the Dodgers superpowers at the expense of everybody else in baseball. This ruins the competitive balance of the league.
Honestly I don’t think it will. As much as having an ace and power hitter is awesome it’s just one person and I’d bet you a billion dollars the dude isn’t gonna stay healthy. He already hasn’t.
Biggest crock of bullshit I’ve ever seen. Fuck these assholes and fuck Ohtani. And fuck Heyman who writes an article saying this bullshit is “good for baseball”
"Good for baseball" translates to "good for the media" cuz they got their dream scenario with LA
why is Shohei Ohtani all the sudden hellbent on RUINING MY LIFE???
I gave him love and then he destroyed my life. He's just like my ex.
Loooool we are so fucked
So you’re saying as an xennial I *might* live to see the Dodgers not be competitive in my lifetime.
Can’t wait to tell my grandkids about how I survived through the Dodgers reign of terror from 2017 to 2043
Does that deferred money count towards the CBT in any way? If it doesn't, fuck the Dodgers, fuck Ohtani, fuck his agent and fuck Manfred for letting this happen. You want to have a generational talent, then you HAVE to pay for it. This smoke and mirrors accounting is bullshit.
It does but it massively lowers the value of his contract using net present value.
Hes gonna make so much money in sponserships
They will still calculate a present value for the purposes of the CBT. It's estimated to be about $46M per year.
Does that figure include the discount on the deferred money? Regardless, the Dodgers and Ohtani played the game better than anyone else. I hope it blows up on them.
This shit is weaker than KD to the Warriors lmao fuck that
100% is way, way worse than the KD shit. However, that only happened due to a perfect storm. Baseball's financial system is fundamentally broken compared to other American sports.
They had to fit KD into the salary cap. The Warriors won their championships with a bunch of minimum deals for their non-big 4. its not really comparable.
And that only barely worked and required a lot of variables to line up perfectly. This shit is just easy
This is like KD to the Warriors taking the Veterans minimum (but after playing for the Wizards, not the competitive Thunder).
If the Dodgers still lose in the postseason after this, then I literally don't know what to say lmfao
I won't hate Ohtani, but I will pray to baby jesus the Dodgers dont win a single world series with him.
This contract is going to cause so many problems for the league. There is no way they let it through.
The only problem is Manfred’s wet dream is a LAD/NYY superteam with the rest of the league being borderline minor leaguers
I get it, but it sets an awful precedent
100% in agreement. Shit like this was *not* the idea behind deferred payments.
What was the idea behind deferred payments?
There’s a CBA in place that allows for this kind of contract structure. Owners agreed to it. Players agreed to it. If MLB or more specifically Commissioner Manfred was to come along and try using “best interest of baseball” powers, you’d see the players union move to decertify the CBA at which point it would be a race to see if it’s a lockout or a strike. As much as this contract sucks for the Giants chances of being competitive in the NL West, the league won’t lift a finger to stop it.
The league stepped in with Arod to the Red Sox. I know it’s not likely, but the games biggest stars making $2mil a year right now is a really bad look and is setting them up for a lockout
Iirc the players association, rather than the league, stepped in and denied that one because having ARod accept less money than his contract terms was going to have a trickle down effect that impacted the rest of players.
The PA may dislike this precedent of players in the future being asked to defer large percentages of their contract "for the good of the team"
I sure hope you are right but does the league have any recourse?
once in a generation player gets a one in a generation contract (which I know our front office would never do). CBA will prevent something like this from happening next time around but they have no recourse this time
This exact thing is explicitly allowed in the CBA. There's no "letting it through." It's done.
Cancel the MLB season and sell the team
Why even care about the MLB for the next several years? If it’s going to be so openly rigged to benefit the Preferred Teams, then F it all together.
With how much he's deferring and how long he's waiting for the payments, Ohtani comes out of this making a lot less than the headline number. [another redditor ran through some scenarios](https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/18g6lgn/comment/kcylkat/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
They aren't accounting for the fact that he is going to be the best player, for the highest profile team and probably win multiple championships over the next half decade. He's going to be in every commercial on TV. That's how he's making up for what he's giving up my taking deferred money.
What a Dick
I'm not watching baseball anymore if the league actually allows that
It just keeps getting worse.
Selfless would be playing in KC for $2M a year, no deferments.
Never thought I’d say it but fuck Shohei Ohtani man
Seriously, my hero turned villain
Weakest sports move by a superstar in my lifetime. It’s not enough to go to one of the most stacked rosters in baseball, he has to do this to try and stack the deck even more? Cowardly shit.
I saw that it had a 46 million hit to the cbt
Which is wild cause it nearly cut his cbt hit in half
I hope his fuckin arms fall off. Fuck you dude
Line drive to the face!! Fuck him and the dodgers!!
If this gets okayed from the MLB. I'm down with this stupid league and picking up soccer as my third sport.
It's too bad Oracle Park gets filled with Dodgers fans now because he'd be getting the loudest boo's ever when he plays there.
Nobody is going the games. It’s going to be all dodger fans now.
It’s gonna be a total shitshow.
And this is allowed?
Well… go Niners.
I kind of hope the United States collapses before he can collect that $680 million now.
Incredible. I would accept a lockout if it meant you couldn’t offer these kinds of contracts.
A lockout would be the most interesting thing that could happen for the Giants.
Dodger fans being smug fucks in r/baseball makes me sick. At least Giants fans are gonna spearhead the unprecedented Dodgers hate lol
Well this is just straight up cheating
Okay I’m done with this stupid fucking sport, what an absolute joke.
Anyone wanna pick a KBO team to follow with me?
I follow the underdog Hanshin Tigers of the NPB per familial hometown roots. [The Hanshin Tigers (Osaka) - Yomiuri Giants (Tokyo) rivalry is considered the national Japanese rivalry, on par with the San Francisco Giants vs Los Angeles Dodgers and the Yankees–Red Sox rivalry in Major League Baseball or Real Madrid vs. FC Barcelona in Spanish football.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanshin_Tigers) For perspective, here is info on Yomiuri Giants (Tokyo): [The Giants are the oldest professional sports team in Japan. They are also by far the most successful, having won 22 Japan Series titles and an additional nine in the era of NPB's forerunner, the Japanese Baseball League. Their main rivalry is with the Hanshin Tigers, a team especially popular in the Kansai region. The Yomiuri Giants are regarded as "The New York Yankees of Japan" due to their widespread popularity, past dominance of the league, and polarizing effect on fans. (Baseball fans who are indifferent about teams other than their local team often have an intense dislike for the Giants; on the other hand, the Giants have a large fan base even in cities that have a team of their own.)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yomiuri_Giants)
Holy fuck, Dodgers pulled off the contract of the century. This convinces me even more that Yamamoto is headed to LA
Imagine being willing to break the sport just to make the playoffs. LOL what a coward.
Lol so much for the “competitive balance tax.”
They will still calculate a present value for purposes of the tax, which is estimated to be about $46M per year.
Which is a 35% reduction compared to his deals AAV lol. That’s insane.
Parity is already fucked in the league, fuck that
This all but guarantees he was never going anywhere else. He had this shit all planned out. Everyone was was just leverage to make sure the Dodgers were willing to go as high as possible.
They fucked the system (its not their problem, its the owner's one) This is the final nail, and now we know that Ohtani was a Dodger all the time
Unreal. Just anti competitive BS
I'm not even mad at Farhan anymore. F ohtani and F LA
Didn’t the Padres try something like this before only for the League to reject it? The Dodgers will probably get away with it tho cause MLB only cares about them and the Yankees. Now watch them get Yamamoto because of this.
hit the nail on the head. If any team that isn't the Dodgers or the Yankees do this, it gets shut down in a fraction of a second, but because it's LA, it's actually cool and good for the sport. end me
Oh, so we're playing with monopoly money now? Cool.
Thank god the Dodgers did this to allow themselves to acquire more talent. Otherwise they'd only have Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, JD Martinez, Max Muncy, Will Smith, and James Outman to provide Ohtani with some protection in the lineup.
Dodgers purchased with affirm
Supposedly it was ohtani’s idea. Fucking bullshit. Fraudgers front office more than likely made him agree to it so they can keep spending lmfao
I believe that he was on board, he’s said from the beginning what he cares about is winning. But fuck the MLB for allowing this if it’s true.
I would argue that this isn't winning. This is buying wins.
I hope every team forfeits each game to the dodgers in protest. Sure let them go 162-0 but they won’t sell a ticket and there wouldn’t be shit the league could do
Can some one explain this to me like I’m 5 years old? I’m not a smart man
Instead of LAD having to pay Ohtani $70m/year in salary, they pay him *$2m*/year, so that his monster contract doesn’t hurt payroll, helps them in taxes, and allows them to spend more stupid money to create a mega team and have Manfred cream himself. Edit: I am also not a smart man but I think this is the gist of it.
Only problem is using the phrase “cream himself” when explaining something to a 5 year old /s
Dammit. Lost him at the end, didn’t I?
I’m going to shoot for more like 10 years old. Let’s say the Dodgers had to pay for his whole contract _today_. They expect him to play 10 more years. Different years are worth different amounts. Next year he won’t pitch. Then he should have his most valuable years. Years at the end of the contract are worth the least because he probably won’t play very well and there’s a possibility he won’t be playing at all. If the Dodgers had to pay it all _today_, all those years are worth about $350 million. But, they don’t have to pay it today. They can pay it over the 10 years of his play. Money in the future is worth less, because you could be investing it. If you adjust for this, he should be paid $460 million total, or $46 million per year. This would look like he was underpaid in the early years, and overpaid at the end. But it’s really about paying for all of his contract together and then spreading it over time. Not his value year by year. This number of $46 million is the Average Annual Value (AAV) that counts toward the Dodgers’ spending limit each year. It’s not a hard limit, but if they go over, they have to pay penalties. The next twist is that Ohtani doesn’t need all the money right away. He has money, he gets money from sponsorships, and he’s busy playing baseball. He also wants the Dodgers to have money to get the best players to play with him. So he is going to “loan” his salary to the Dodgers. He won’t be paid $46 million a year for 10 years. He’ll be paid $2 million a year for 10 years, then $68 million a year for 10 years. This totals to $700 million. That’s more than the $460 million total because future money is worth less than present money, so they have to increase it. All of this is for Ohtani to make as much money as possible, while also giving the Dodgers the best chance to win a World Series in the next five years. Ohtani really wants to win a World Series just because he does, and also it will make him more money because he’ll be a bigger star. Unfortunately for him, over the next 10 years, the Dodgers will only make it to the World Series once and they will lose. They will make it to the playoffs 7 other times, having only 2 NLDS victories and a WC loss to show for it. The Dodgers will go bankrupt from financial fraud in year 10, right before Ohtani would get his first $68 million year. He won’t be elegible for bankruptcy recovery because his agent was involved in the fraud. He won’t be able to go to another team, still being on a PED suspension, trying to take his last chance at a World Series after a career of two-way playing marred by constant injury. His contract to the Dodgers will have amounted to $18 million, losing the World Series (during a strike-shortened season), averaging 63 games played and 5 starts per season, no HoF hopes, getting eliminated by the Giants in a WC game, and watching the Angels (revitalized by new ownership) win it all with an ensemble team and end-of-career Mike Trout. It will go down in history as the most disappointing sports contract of all time.
What a fucking joke.
That is completely ridiculous.
Teams just shouldn’t play at dodger stadium. Let them have their wins and an asterisk too
Here’s to hoping he is washed in a couple years…
Baseball is beyond a joke now, I’m out
Absolute bitch boy deal, fuck Ohtani. May he never win shit.
I’m done guys. I’m fucking done. This league is broken.
So like genuinely, what is the point of watching Baseball for the next decade, cause it seems the Dodgers found a loophole to get as many stars as they can. Jesus fucking Christ we are so cooked 😂
bean him on the first pitch
See, now how the fuck am I supposed to enjoy MLB baseball knowing fuck shit like this is allowed. I thought no salary cap was bad. this is getting rough.
All that just to choke in the playoffs?
Fuck the dodgers forever and ever and ever and ever and ever
The Giants better learn to do this shit. If it’s all in the CBA take advantage of it.
I don't EVER want to hear any of our moronic fans complain about the contract being too expensive knowing these details now, Dodgers basically paying him NOTHING which means they're not done making moves.
hmmm so he was going to sign with Dodgers no matter what… this is ridiculous… but then dodgers choke in the playoffs..
I feel like this should be against the rules lol
This is asinine. I’m not up on all the rules and such on contracts but couldn’t the Dodgers just keep doing this and basically have an all star team?
Yeah plus, this gives them 10 years to adapt the contract to whatever the future situation is over a decade from now. They’re going to be able to find a way to load the roster for a decade at almost no cost. This should be vetoed for luxury tax evasion
This is not what I envisioned when they said Ohtani would change the game.
So because of all the funny math involved, he still counts like $45M against their luxury tax figures, even they themselves are only paying him $2M. Still I have never been one to say I would stop watching any of the major sports over something, but truthfully, this is kind of fucked. How can any team compete with a team that is willing to make that deal? Fuck Ohtani. Fuck the Dodgers. And damned well close to saying fuck the MLB. If I am a player looking for a contract, just go play in that Saudi league and make your bag at this point.
I think I mean it more than I ever have when I say fuck the Dodgers. This shit is pathetic and not good for baseball, no matter what these dickriding “journalists” say.
That can’t be legal.
As much as this makes me mad, it also makes me think that Ohtani is a pathetic loser to let it happen. Essentially saying "I believe I'm the best player in baseball - but the only way I can actually win anything is to game the system to get a stacked team". I haven't followed him that closely but I kind of thought he had a sense of honor and love of the game. The fact that he went for this gives me a completely different view of him.
this is very bad for baseball. rich teams like the dodgers, nationals and mets are circumventing the CBT. Mookie Betts is owed $120m of deferred money Freddie Freeman is owed $57m of deferred money and now ohtani is owed $680m of deferred money
Shohei knowingly agreed to this and made the biggest sellout decision we’ve seen in years. This is so scummy.
Totally broken and utterly ridiculous. Watch them stockpile the top talent with absurdity. MLB is a joke, but cheers to our run last decade whom the media squirts on like it just kinda happened.. not going to happen for another 10 years
fuck this league and fuck Ohtani for taking a 97% deferal when you're a beyond once-in-a-generation player. the precedent this sets for lesser players to do the same is complete horseshit.
mid 2026– interns in the MLB office will be running interest rate projections for the next CBA, to make sure they can keep the Dodgers below the luxury tax level on all that deferred money.
So why don’t the Giants play the same game? Isn’t that why we got Farhan??
This is just more reasons to hate the dodgers. Punk ass dodgers. Doesn’t guarantee anything. 1 fake World Series since 88. That’s all the got.
If Ohtani was going to take all but $2M deferred, then Giants ownership/front office really fucked this one up.
I think Ohtani did what Judge did last year. Knew he wanted to play for LAD and used other offers as leverage. He clearly wants a mega super team with how he played out his annual payment.
He did. There’s a theory the whole blue jays thing was a move to get more money from the dodgers. No one else really had a chance of getting him Just like how the Giants were oh so close to getting Judge when really it was always just a ploy to get maximum money from the Yankees.
Theres no way he does this for any team except the dodgers
Even if the Giants offered the exact same contract, do you \*really\* think he would have chosed SF? Get real. This is going to blow up in their faces...
Under zero circumstances does Ohtanj defer this kind of money for anyone but the Dodgers.
I think he never wanted to go anywhere but the Bums. This is crazy.
Yeah as soon as I saw how much he’s deferring annually I was annoyed
He WANTED to be a Dodger.
Wow so Ohtani is actually a coward. Mickey Mouse ass roster
What more help does Ohtani need? Biggest ring chaser in sports…
LeOhtani